Tuesday, December 03, 2013

-valis Pick of the Week

Hail Voyagers! Back with another Pick and they're no strangers to these pages: The Black Hollies! Their fourth album, Somewhere Between Here And Nowhere, has just been released by venerable label Ernest Jenning.

On vinyl, too! (Vertigo swirl?!)

I first heard the title track as the pre-release several weeks ago and was left to scratch my head and wonder how the Hades it fit in with the rest of the album. The vocals were unmistakeably Justin's however the sonic alchemy at work hinted at a darker palette than what we're used to from these Jersey dwellers. Along came the whole album and the curtains were pulled back. It's as if they'd forsaken the speed-and-stripes of the mod/freakbeat camp for the alluring Muse of the psilocybe and tabs. Alice fell down the spiral.

This is a Black Hollies album, to be sure; it just isn't The Kirkbys or Small Faces or The Who of predecessor albums. This one's been burnished in white flame at the center of the mind where true darkness resides justifying the symbolic yin and yang of opposition. Mind you, there's no tussle going on within the grooves. Ferrante still supplies the forceful -and force-of-nature, drumming we've come to expect; Gonelli's keys are alight; Wiley.., he's Wiley. And Justin supplies the lyrics and vocals to perfection. It's far too easy to say this is a "maturation process at work." They've always been mature. This is akin to turning over The Fool card. They're traipsing at the edge and we're on the journey with them. Because "out here in the perimeter there are no stars...

we is stoned immaculate."

***
You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Monday from 1 to 3 am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

Note:
Adding the Pick of the Week to their show is Dogs Got A Bone out of Edinburgh, Scotland, from 10pm to midnight, Mondays, U.K. time, (adjust accordingly,) on Belter Radio. Thanks Col Chant!